AN OPINION ON THE MENTAL FITNESS IN GHANA

A psychologist based at the Accra Psychiatry Hospital once revealed that nine out of ten Ghanaians had a mental challenge. Dr Akwesi Osei's revelation debunks the claim that walking down the streets naked and unkempt is the only manifestation and definition of madness.

All Ghanaians suffer one mental illness from another.

Mental fitness, here in Ghana, is arguably a debative topic to probe into. But records show that the daill stresses and pressures on the average Ghanaian continue to reduce the tenacity of the mental faculty. Not a dawn moment in the dailies reveals cases of suicide and homicide in communities here in Ghana.

A deserted mentallychallenged woman.

Stress, if assessed investigatively shows that the nature of the Ghanaian job market, the high demands from education, the unending efforts in marriages, the changing scenes of cultures and the innundation with information are but examples of how prone the Ghanaian mind is to becoming mentally unstable.

Although the rate at which persons are losing their minds and chosing the streets keep rising steadily, the percentage of the number of persons mentaly unstable also remains relevant. It is surprising though how this phenomena stretching through every economic level in Ghanaians; the poor, middle class and upper class thus making it a national issue.

With students as young as 21 battling with deppression; with teenagers struggling with self identity, with formal and informal workers striving to make ends meet with the palsy salary paid them, the argument is clear that we all have a mental issue or another and that just seeing other mentally challenged accross the strreets should rather inform us on the question of what happens next should our mental inbalances deteriorate.

For now it is clear that mental health in Ghana cannot be assesed from the back ground of persons with severe mental challenges; but within us.

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